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Philipp Thurner founded Nexl, the CRM and AI platform helping law firm BD and marketing teams turn relationships into growth. 3 pivots, a Rails MVP funded by a $25K cheque, payroll paid from his own pocket, and a CRM sold off a PowerPoint slide before it existed.

We dive into:

• Finding a founding engineer by stalking GitHub repos
• 3 pivots and telling investors "I have a new idea" (again)
• Getting down to the last 4 months of runway...
• What is "the moat" now?
• Bring your own AI
• Differentiators at scale
• Deterministic reports over token burning
• What to teach your kids
• Working yourself sick
• Stepping back from CEO

Follow Philipp Thurner

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipp-thurner/

Nexl: https://nexl.cloud/

Follow Dave Berner

Newsletter: https://subscribe.daveberner.me

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveberner/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dave.berner

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daveberner_/

X: https://x.com/daveberner_

Website: https://daveberner.me

Parachute

Website: https://goparachute.ai

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Dave Press co-founded RiskTalk, a voice-first safety reporting platform built for the frontline workers in mining, oil and gas and power generation

We dive into:

• Why AI has cooked outbound and what's replaced it
• Booth vs hosting - which events convert
• The referral multiplier you can't put a price on
• Why consultants make lousy channel partners
• The engineer who said "stop hiring engineers"
• 3 cent code reviews
• Building for the frontline and saying no to head office
• Merch, billboard trucks and pavement stickers

Follow Dave Press

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-press-0020a516/

RiskTalk: https://risktalk.com.au

Follow Dave Berner

Newsletter: https://subscribe.daveberner.me

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveberner/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dave.berner

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daveberner_/

X: https://x.com/daveberner_

Website: https://daveberner.me

Parachute

Website: https://goparachute.ai

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Evan Wong is the co-founder of Checkbox AI - the front door for legal teams, triaging and resolving requests before they ever hit a lawyer's desk.

We dive into:

• Walking away from over $1M ARR
• Using a written memo to bring your team and investors on the journey
• What happens to engineering identity when nobody writes code by hand
• Why the goal isn't faster code reviews
• Harvey, Legora and the frontier labs - what's actually being adopted in-house?
• Build vs buy in 2026
• How to get in front of senior buyers before you have a product

Oh, and there's the company value formerly known as "No Mercy", plus a Swedish whisky that's apparently made with AI.

Follow Evan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theevanwong/

Checkbox: https://www.checkbox.ai

Follow Dave

Newsletter: https://subscribe.daveberner.me

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveberner/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dave.berner

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daveberner_/

X: https://x.com/daveberner_

Website: https://daveberner.me

Parachute

Website: https://goparachute.ai